He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter. - John Burroughs
*Check out the video tutorial at the end of this blog!*
It's that time of year again, WINTER! Follow my tutorial on how to create a cozy winter town landscape sugar cookie. Make this sweet treat to warm up (and impress) your loved ones. This is the very first cookie of my Winter Cookie Collection! I'm so excited to share this with you since I had so much fun putting it together.
Growing up to even now, the Holidays are always a time that I look forward to. When I think of Christmas, I think of family game nights, roasting marshmallows over fires, Christmas Eve dinner, opening presents one person at a time, and simply spending time with my entire family. It's been harder to find times that work to see each other during the Holidays since my family is busier and further apart. But, we always find a way to make it work. This Christmas cookie is something I had in mind and means a lot to me because when I look at it, it reminds me of home.
Materials You'll Need:
~ Baked square sugar cookies
~ Royal Icing
~ Gel Food Coloring
~ Blue, black, golden yellow, green, and brown
~ Piping Bags
~ Food Safe Paint Brush
~ Scribe tool or toothpick
Let's Start! There are many steps to this landscape cookie, but don't worry, I made it super easy to follow.
Step 1
It is much easier to decorate cookies when you have all your icing mixed and bagged beforehand. You'll need to mix royal icing with the following gel food colors: brown, green, golden yellow, black, and blue. To create the light blue color, simply mix a *little* of blue with white royal icing. All of the mixed royal icing were made to be medium consistency besides the brown and green. Leave those as stiff consistencies.
The only icing that is using a piping tip is the brown icing. The rest I just simply cut a very small opening at the tip.
Step 2
Next, have your baked square cookie ready to go. I use a basic sugar cookie recipe - here is one that I've tried before and recommend - there is also a royal icing recipe there as well. A tip I have for you is to put your dough into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before you roll it out and bake. This extra step helps the cookie to keep it shape while in the oven. Let cool completely before decorating.
Step 3
Using the blue icing, pipe onto the top half of the square. Use your scribe tool to get the icing closer to the edges, get rid of any bubbles, or to even the icing out.
Step 4
With the lighter blue, pipe icing onto the bottom half of the cookie.
Step 5
Next, using the scribe or toothpick tool, start combining both the blue and light blue royal icing together. You can continue to work on it until you get more of an ombre look. Or you can leave some fun swirls so that it looks like a whimsical sky.
Step 6
Now, we will start building up the landscape. Using the white royal icing, add the first hill. Make sure the right side goes down about half the size of the beginning of the hill.
Step 7
Make sure to wait a few minutes before adding in the second hill on the right side of the cookie. If you add it too soon, the icing will just blend and it will look like one piece instead of two with a defined line.
Step 8
In the top left corner, add in a circular shape for the moonlight.
Step 9
Using a food safe brush, dabble into the moon and expand the icing outwards onto the cookie. This will make the moonlight effect. Make sure to leave more on the outer corner so that the moonlight has a more ombre effect.
Step 10
Next, let's add the house silhouettes with the black royal icing. Pipe on different types of houses to create your little cozy winter town. This part I used the scribe to make the houses more defined and to add the little chimneys at the top. Just simply drag out some of the icing from the house to create the chimney.
Step 11
With the golden yellow royal icing, place some small dots onto the houses. This gives the illusion of a lit house at night. You can wait for the houses to dry before doing so. Or using the wet on wet technique, you can place the yellow onto the wet black royal icing. This will make the image look like one piece whereas if you wait for the black to dry, you'll get somewhat of a "pop out" look for the windows.
Step 12
Next, add a couple trees using the brown stiff royal icing. Just add some squiggles with a trunk!
Step 13
This town isn't complete without some pine trees. To pipe the mini pine trees, start at the top of the tree with green icing in a caret (^) shape. Add two or three more caret shapes one after another. The trees that you want to look further back should be a little smaller than the trees that are closer to the bottom of the cookie.
Step 14
Using some more of the black royal icing, place small dots trailing from any house down to the bottom of the cookie. These are going to be little footprints leading to the town.
Step 15
Going back to the white royal icing we're going to have snow falling. Pipe small and large dots into the sky.
Step 16
Add some white royal icing snow to top the houses.
Step 17
Finally, pipe some white icing onto a plate or napkin. Using your paintbrush, dip it into the icing and dab it onto the snow and trees. This will give it more definition and give it more of a snowy look.
I had a TON of fun putting this to paper and planning all the parts and pieces. The most satisfying part is the final piece!
As promised, check out the video tutorial here:
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